Group Description

World Photo Day originates from the invention of the Daguerreotype, a photographic processes developed by Joseph Nicèphore Nièpce and Louis Daguerre in 1837. On January 9, 1839, The French Academy of Sciences announced the daguerreotype process. A few months later, on August 19, 1839, the French government purchased the patent and announced the invention as a gift "Free to the World".

In 1839, William Henry Fox Talbot presented a paper to the Royal Society of London describing his photographic invention, the Calotype. This was the first photographic process that was based on negatives, allowing for multiple copies of a singe photograph to be produced. The celluloid based film introduced by Eastman Kodak in 1884 uses the same principle as the Calotype.

It should be noted that the Daguerreotype wasn't the first permanent photographic image. In 1826, Nicèphore Nièpce captured the earliest known permanent photograph known as 'View from the Window at Le Gras' using a process called Heliography.

August 19th, 1839 was chosen as the date behind World Photo Day based on the following historical merits:

- The Daguerreotype was the first practical photographic process. - The purchase and release of the patent by the French government. - The announcement of the Calotype by Henry Fox Talbot